On Monday – when school starts again – hundreds of teachers have their first day of work in Saxony. But many jobs remain vacant, especially in rural areas.
Dresden (dpa/sn) – At the start of the second half of the school year, a total of 817 new teachers were hired in Saxony, fewer than planned. “Even if we were able to hire almost 100 more people compared to the last half of the school year, I would have wished for more new teachers to relieve our schools,” said Minister of Education Christian Piwarz (CDU) on Thursday in Dresden. It is not money and jobs that are lacking here, but heads. Up to 1100 new hires were originally planned.
In addition to the lack of applicants, it is still difficult to attract enough young teachers to work in rural areas. In order to close the gap, it should be easier to hire lateral entrants in the future. In the coming school year, graduates from universities of applied sciences without a subject assignment should also be able to work as teachers. In addition, it is planned to hire lateral entrants at high schools in all subjects. Previously, this was only intended for the areas of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology (MINT). The recognition process for teachers from abroad is also to be accelerated.
Behind the 817 newly hired people are a total of 599 teachers with basic training who can work at all schools, as well as 19 pedagogical specialists who are employed exclusively at special schools. In addition, there are 199 side entrants who have been in entry qualification since last November. In the previous year, a total of 719 teachers were newly hired, including 564 teachers with basic training and 16 pedagogical specialists as well as 139 lateral entrants.
Piwarz emphasized that the increase in teaching positions is not yet fully noticeable on the job market. One of the reasons he gave for this was the corona pandemic, which would have lengthened the study times. “Together with the universities, we have to make the MINT subjects more attractive and increase the success rates. We are in talks with the Ministry of Science about this,” says Piwarz. According to the minister, the measures to attract teachers are already having an effect. Mainly because of the civil servant status for teachers, Saxony is competitive on the teaching market throughout Germany.
